MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — Middletown police allege that the two women who ran A Magic Touch Cleaning Co. in Fall River have been doing a little more than just vacuuming carpets and drapes and dusting bureaus in their clients’ homes.

Police allege they were also stealing jewelry from some of those clients and then pawning that jewelry at different local pawn shops and jewelry stores in southeastern Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, police arrested and charged both of the business owners — Jacqueline R. Maloney, 26, and Kortnie Lee Vickery, 26, both of 235 Albion St. in Fall River — with larceny over $1,500, according to Middletown Police Lt. Robert Nutt.

According to a narrative of the investigation written by Middletown police Detective Adam Tobias, the charges stem from a report of missing jewelry by a Middletown resident Elaine Albanese, whom police met with on Aug. 3.

Albanese told police Maloney and Vickery regularly cleaned her residence every other Wednesday, but she had been “unhappy with the quality of the cleaning.” On July 30, a day that Maloney and Vickery were scheduled to clean Albanese’s home, she noticed after they left that the house “had barely been cleaned, and a few cleaning products had been left behind,” according to Tobias.

She went into her bedroom and found that jewelry — including gold hoop earrings, a gold necklace and a white gold pendant with diamonds and white gold chain — was missing from the room.

According to police, Albanese then contacted a friend in Newport — also a client of A Magic Touch Cleaning — after the discovery. The friend’s house had already been cleaned. She told Albanese that she found a single gold hoop earring that wasn’t hers. Albanese later confirmed that it was one of the items missing from her bedroom.

Police checked pawn shop records on Aug. 3. They showed that, one day earlier, Maloney pawned a white gold pendant and chain at Cash for Gold, 1513 Pleasant St. in Fall River. Police said it matched the pendant that was missing from Albanese’s residence.

Middletown police contacted the Fall River Police Department and the owner of Cash for Gold, from whom they obtained a transaction record and surveillance photos. Police said the photos show Maloney and Vickery “at the store counter completing a transaction of the stolen jewelry.”

On Aug. 7, police submitted an affidavit and received an arrest warrant for Maloney and Vickery.

On Aug. 12, police arrested Maloney, who told police that Vikery had actually stolen the jewelry. Maloney admitted to pawning a necklace at Cash for Gold and to selling a bracelet at Hannoush Jewelers in Swansea.

She told police that she and Vickery opened A Magic Touch Cleaning a few months prior and had been cleaning houses in Portsmouth, Middletown, Newport and Johnston, R.I. The company, Maloney told police, had been experiencing financial problems, so they started stealing jewelry and pawning that jewelry in different pawn shops in Massachusetts.

Page 2 of 2 - Vickery was also arrested on Aug. 12, by Newport police, who then transported her to the Middletown Police Department. Vickery admitted to stealing jewelry from Albanese’s residence and stated she had a drug addiction problem and that she stole to support that addiction, according to police.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and say there may be additional victims in the Aquidneck Island area. They said clients who've hired the company in the past and noticed items missing should notify their local police departments.